The Amazing Motorized Germ

What do your skin, a compost pile and Lake Superior all have in common? Each of them is home to an abundance of microscopic germs, properly called bacteria.

Bacteria seem to be thought of as
“simple” compared to many-celled organisms, but certain motorized
bacteria (such as E. coli or Spirilla) reveal immense engineering
complexity.

Efficient design

These motorized bacteria are hardly “simple”. The
bacterium swims about with a whip-like cord called a flagellum (plural flagella),
driven by a fantastic motor embedded in the outer shell. The flagellar motor
is powered by proton flow, and closely resembles microscopic electric motors,
powered by electron flow. The motor generates waves in the cord, which drive
the germ forward.

A bacterial flagellar motor has the amazing quality
of combining speed with efficiency. These extremely efficient motors can
quickly stop, start, change speeds, and reach a top speed of about 100,000
rpm (revolutions per minute)!1,2 The cell is propelled up to
15 body-lengths per second at top speed.3 If this could be scaled
up, it would be like a person of height 1.8 m (6 ft) swimming at 100
km/h (60 mph).

It is also very versatile, because it has forward
and reverse gears, enabling the germ to reverse direction within a quarter
of a turn.

Most man-made electric motors are up to 75–95%
efficient at larger sizes, but lose efficiency as they get smaller.4 The
bacterial motor is almost 100% efficient at cruising speed.5 The
bacterium uses only 2% of its total energy for swimming.6

Microscopic design

Biological flagellum motors are also superior
in their minute size. The smallest man-made electric motor weighs 0.37 grams
and is the size of a housefly,7 but bacterial motors weigh almost
nothing. To view them you need an electron microscope, because they are
25 nanometres (one millionth of an inch) in diameter.

Eight million of them would fit in the cross-sectional area
of an average human hair.8 Scaling a regular electric motor to
this size would bog it down with friction, because water tends to get “stickier”
as things are smaller. But it does not cause any problems for the flagellar
motor.

Purposeful design

There are no motors of any type that are as rapid,
efficient, and small as flagellar motors in bacteria. Could such a motor
that far exceeds man’s inventions be the result of a cosmic accident billions
of years ago? Every example of man-made electric motors proves to be primitively
clumsy compared to the superior complexity and efficiency of the flagellum
motor. The reasonable solution is that motorized bacteria had an all-wise
designer, Jesus Christ our Creator (John 1:3; Hebrews 1:2).

“For the invisible things of him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans
1:20).

How do evolutionists explain away such exquisite design?

Diagram of a germ’s motor and flagellum

Scientific American tried to explain this amazing miniature motor
by evolution, by claiming that the parts were “co-opted” from other
functions:

“The sophisticated components of this flagellum all have precedents
elsewhere in nature …

“In fact, the entire flagellum assembly is extremely similar to
an organelle that Yersinia pestis, the bubonic plague bacterium,
uses to inject toxins into cells. …

“The key is that the flagellum’s component structures … can serve
multiple functions that would have helped favor their evolution.”1

Scientific American’s argument is like claiming that if the components
of an electric motor already exist in an electrical shop, they could
assemble by themselves into a working motor. However, the right
organization is just as important as the right components.

Dr Scott Minnich of the University of Idaho, a world expert on the
flagellar motor, disagrees with Scientific American. He says that
his belief that this motor has been intelligently designed has given
him many research insights. Minnich points out that the very process
of assembly in the right sequence requires other regulatory machines.2 He
also points out that only about 10 of the 40 components can possibly
be explained by co-option, but the other 30 are brand new.

Finally, Dr Minnich’s research shows that the flagellum won’t form
above 37°C; instead, some secretory organelles form from the same
set of genes. But this secretory apparatus, as well as the plague
bacterium’s drilling apparatus, are a degeneration from the flagellum. Minnich
says that although it is more complex, the motor came first, so it
couldn’t have been derived from them.3

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Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively. We focus on providing answers to questions about the Bible—particularly the book of Genesis—regarding key issues such as creation, evolution, science, and the age of the earth.